More particularly, the performance of a device (e.g., a field effect transistor (FET), a bipolar transistor, a resistor, a capacitor, etc.) on an integrated circuit (IC) chip can vary as a function of temperature. The temperature of a device can vary due to the self-heating effect (SHE). The self-heating effect refers to heat generated by the device itself, when active. Those skilled in the art will recognize that there is a strong relationship between the supply voltage applied to a device when active and the temperature of that device. The temperature of a device can also vary due to the thermal coupling (i.e., due to the device's proximity to adjacent heat source(s), such as adjacent device(s)). Current modeling techniques provide for modeling localized temperature changes due to self-heating and due to thermal coupling with adjacent heat source(s). However, modeling of a localized temperature change due to thermal coupling typically involves calculations of thermal resistance along thermal pathways and such calculations can be quite complex, time consuming and oftentimes inaccurate. This is particularly true when heat removal (e.g., by convection or radiation) from the backside of IC chip contained in a chip package is inefficient such that the temperature distribution across the backside of the IC chip varies, changing the heat flow lines and, thereby changing the thermal resistances that need to be calculated. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a more efficient technique for modeling such localized temperature changes due to self-heating and thermal coupling.